As frequent readers of this blog may have noted, I’ve been traveling frequently since January. (I was in Irvine on Monday, San Francisco on Tuesday, Denver on Wednesday, and between now and next month I’ll be in Napa Valley, Philadelphia/NJ, Utah, Omaha, San Francisco again, and probably some other places.) The successful outcome of all of these trips to some degree require internet technology — the ability to access the web on location, and to project video and Powerpoint and audio. Past experience has taught me that it’s best to bring the tech with you. Dating back to my adolescence when I was a comic-book dealer exhibiting at one or two conventions a weekend, I learned the hard way that when you didn’t bring it with you, whatever was provided just wasn’t enough.

I saw that again in January when I attended Twiistup, a two-day confab in Los Angeles where tech startups make presents to venture capitalists and angel funders. The tech guys weren’t able to get WiFi to work for much of the conference, and the projector and screen rarely seemed to be in synch. I felt bad for the presenters, all of whom are timed, who complained that their time was cut in half because of faulty tech. And this was at a tech event.

That doesn’t top this story, though. This weekend I’m at the California Democratic Convention. A friend just sent me this text:

So, at the Computer and Internet caucus, they couldn’t get their Powerpoint to project properly, and they had no internet connection.

I’m sorry to hear that. But any more:  I’m not surprised. So if you see me in some airport around the country lugging around my laptop, and a projector, and even a small case of speakers, you’ll understand why.

This entry was posted on Friday, April 16th, 2010 at 4:51 pm and is filed under Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.